BUILDING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE FOR LITERACY AND DEEPENED CRITICAL ENGAGEMENT FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE

The negative impacts of climate change are disproportionately felt by those least responsible for causing it. Because of this, there is a need for critical approaches to education, research, and civic engagement that intentionally seek to redistribute power by engaging for social change through policy and practices. Results from the National Survey of Student Engagement have revealed that when it comes to engaging in societal issues there is a large gap between issue awareness and agency. While most graduating students have reported that they “have often” or “have very often” informed themselves about issues and discussed them with others very few report that they “have often” or “have very often” raised awareness, asked others to address issues, or organized others to work. Engaging in issues of community development, public health, and political advocacy for local to national policy change requires not only building literacy but agency. Furthermore, engagement for equity and justice requires an additional level of willingness to experience discomfort for change. For example, community planning might favor stormwater planning that co-benefits public health, place-making, and climate resiliency to neighborhoods. While the easiest decision might be to revitalize downtown and showcase green investments, decisions made without consideration of place-based inequities and community perspectives potentially widen climate injustices. Program and university efforts might accelerate the quest for climate justice through community of practice models for research, education, and engagement that work across expertise and local networks to advanced shared climate justice goals. They hold promise for expanding local literacy of climate inequities and injustices and for moving from literacy to the critical engagement needed for equitable and just policies and practices. In particular they may reduce discomfort by improving the sharing of need to know information and navigation tips.